VR Time Travel: Step into Old Hong Kong

If you could travel back in time, where would you go?

We have already reported about the opportunities Virtual Reality enables to travel back in time to experience historical events. A new VR time travel experience, named “VR Time Travel: Step into Old Hong Kong” by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) allows visitors to step into old Hong Kong and explore the old days of the city. Visitors can re-live scenes from the 1960s and 1980s. A battle between two kung-fu fighters at the famous Hollywood Road as well as the dramatic landing of an aircraft at the Kai Tan International Airport is showcased.

HKTB collaborated with the VR design house TimeLooper and the observation deck sky100 to provide the VR time travel experience. TimeLooper is specialized in the creation of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences to re-live moments that made a destination or specific site location famous. Yigit Yigiter (CEO of TimeLooper) said: “…We were able to utilise TimeLooper’s cutting-edge teleportation technology and new VR production techniques to place viewers closer to the action than ever before and as a result allow them to experience two of Hong Kong’s most important historical cultural scenes in an immersive and fun manner.”

The VR time travel experience is an offer visitors can pay for while visiting the sky100 observation desk. Additionally, there is the opportunity to buy VR videos or a cardboard viewer. This is another example adding to the ongoing debate if VR is a substitute for real travel or rather a supplement.

Julia discovered her interest in the field of eTourism during her master program at UoAS Salzbug. She is fascinated how fast technology develops and finds its way to tourism. Julia wrote her master thesis on the topic of "Virtual Reality as a tool to trigger emotions in tourism marketing" and investigated the impact of VR with subjective as well as objective measurements.

About Julia Beck

Julia discovered her interest in the field of eTourism during her master program at UoAS Salzbug. She is fascinated how fast technology develops and finds its way to tourism. Julia wrote her master thesis on the topic of "Virtual Reality as a tool to trigger emotions in tourism marketing" and investigated the impact of VR with subjective as well as objective measurements.